Abstract:
Sri Lanka has been positioned as a small island in right direction in the Indian
subcontinent. There are three major climatic and environmental zones in Sri Lanka including
wet zone, dry zone and intermediate zone. Remains of snails found from the pre historic
excavations and remains of presently living snails are supportive to identify the climatic
differences occurred in more than thousands years ago. Research question of this study are to
identify what were the eco system and climatic conditions appeared in ancient Sri Lanka
(35000 years before present) and to examine the possibility of recreation of the ancient
environment through the excavated remains of the snails. Objective of the study is to identify
that how was the basic structure of the ancient environment prevailed in the island in ancient
times.Major research method of the study is field observation and the data were collected
from the primary sources including field observations carried out at the pre historic sites such
as Pahiyangala, Batadombalena and Pothana. Previous researches were also referred as the
secondary sources during the research. Remains of land snails were used as the main
environmental factors to recreate the ancient environment consisted in ancient Sri Lanka.
These snails had been adopted according to the various vegetation types of the Island. It is
reported that 253 of land snails species and 94 of fresh water snail species have been found in
Sri Lanka. Among them 05 of land snails are endemic to the island. Habitation of the land
snails and fresh water snails can be found in the various vegetation types such as low land
rain forest, sub Montana / Montana rain forest, dry monsoon forest and cultivated habitats.It
has been identified that the snails have been survived at the pre historic cave sites (Fa-hian
Cave, Batadomba Cave and Belilena Cave) and open areas 43,000 before present.Living
patterns or habitats of these snails are different according to the climatic zones. It is possible
to recreate the prehistoric environment through the usage of bio indicator species which are
relative to the snail species found in currently. As most of the evidences of the snail remains
are recorded from the wet micro habitats, it can be identified that the environmental and
climatic condition of the country had not been changed severely. Some of the snail species
examined during the research are cyclophorus (land snails), plandomus (fresh water snails)
etc.
